$60m lift on cards for Gunns

EMBATTLED timber company Gunns Limited is close to finalising a sale of its Portland woodchip loading facility in Victoria for about $60 million. Source: The Mercury
It is understood the buyer is Australian Bluegum Plantations a subsidiary of US-based firm Global Forest Partners.
Global Forest Partners bought Timbercorp assets in 2009 for $345 million.
It is expected the company will make an announcement to the stock exchange tomorrow.
Gunns, which has a 25-year lease on a four-hectare site at Portland, had been seeking to finalise the transaction before June 30 but several factors, including an investigation by the ACCC, delayed the completion.
Gunns built the Portland facility for about $21 million in 2010, to export woodchips from its Green Triangle plantations.
It had also planned to use the facility to load up to 1.5 million tonnes of woodchips to be used as feedstock in the $2.3 billion Bell Bay pulp mill.
However, a need to liquidate assets forced the Portland sale.
It is a rare bit of good news for Gunns since suffering a hammer blow with the withdrawal of a $150 million investment by the Richard Chandler Corporation in March.
This week, it said it had received a $42 million tax reassessment, while last week it announced it was reviewing the value of its Tasmanian plantations because of slumping woodchip prices.